Terracycle – terribly good, or terribly bad?

Who is
this creature with terrible claws, and terrible teeth in its terrible jaws? Oh
help, oh no…. it’s a Facebook eco group sniping at people for trying their
best. Scherioushly…

So I’ve
mentioned this before, but I think the current #WarOnPlastic agenda becoming so
popular has caused some long-term environmentalists to be a bit annoyed that
they’re not quite so alternative anymore, and to use the anonymity of the
internet to shoot people down in flames who are new to the mission and maybe
don’t fully understand the complexity of it all. Some of this is valid but just
maybe ill-phrased (e.g. do you really know what’s happening to your
recycling?), but some of it is just plain unnecessary. For example, a recent
post I saw of someone celebrating the introduction of paper straws in Tesco was
met with a bunch of people asking the poster why they needed straws in the
first place (maybe a fair point, but also potentially disablist), then
criticising the plastic bottles of fizzy drinks behind the straws in the
photograph – which the original poster may or may not have been buying anyway.
Blah. It’s pretty boring really and gets in the way of useful information
sharing and mutual encouragement for people making changes to help the planet.

Anyway….
back to the point. Terracycle. I discovered this quite recently, as
a new drop-off point has been set up very near our house. This article is a really useful summary of what
it’s all about – essentially, Terracycle partner with big brands to set up
recycling programmes for waste which isn’t accepted by most kerbside recycling
services. There are local drop-off points at churches, schools, community
centres etc. and the recyclers can earn points which turn into charitable
donations. Brilliant.

We were excited to find that out local drop-off point takes pet food pouches. Our (non-vegan) cat has the most expensive cat food in the world, special medicated stuff for his troublesome bladder and kidneys. I can’t give him cheaper canned stuff, with more easily recycled packaging, as it would make him ill and cost us a huge amount of money to keep him alive, again. So these pouches are non-negotiable plastic use for us while he’s still shuffling across this mortal coil. Additionally, they collect crisp and snack packets, bread bags and various other things. There’s also a national contact lens recycling scheme, with collection points at opticians. Again, this is non-negotiable plastic use for me (blind as a bat, crap peripheral vision in glasses, plus, you know, vanity) and I’ve felt guilty about it for years, so hooray.

Terracylcle
say that they recycle 97% of the waste they receive, and promise that nothing
goes to landfill (some is reused or composted). This is how they do it. I tweeted them directly
about the contact lens scheme and they said that the plastic is used to make
products such as benches, and “mostly” recycled in the UK,
“rarely” in Europe.

So far so good. Then I stepped down the internet rabbit hole. Terracycle is perpetuating the problem, getting into bed with big corporations (Nestle, PepsiCo, Walkers) to keep us consuming – Walkers want you to keep eating crisps, Terracycle want you to keep eating crisps, you want to keep eating crisps – so if a guilt-free solution to your crisp eating can be found, everyone’s a winner. Except we keep making more and more plastic, downcycling it into products that will end up in landfill in the end, and there’s no pressure on manufacturers to develop better packaging, and no pressure on us to change our ways. This article explains a bit more about the business model, and says that Terracycle is a profiteering middle-man (they don’t actually own any processing plants themselves). Even Wikipedia contains some accusations of green-washing, and a fellow blogger is particularly scathing here.

So I’ve been thinking about this a lot this week, as I’ve been sorting through our stash of stuff for drop-off, and trying to balance out the conflicting views I’ve seen on this. My conclusions, for what they’re worth, are as follows:

Yes, Terracycle is a business, trying to make money. We live in a capitalist society, like it or fight it. They are guaranteeing to recycle stuff, though, in comparison with our own local authorities, who have no audit trail of what has happened to huge amounts of exported waste. Yes, it’s a lot of green-washing from big corporates, but they are funding the recycling and preventing this stuff going to landfill or being incinerated, and it does benefit local charities and schools. Also the soon-to-be-launched Loop programme, described in this interview with Terracycle founder Tom Szaky, looks really interesting. I think he’s right when he says that consumers want to live a waste-free life but won’t sacrifice on affordability and convenience. We’re all clamouring for big business to do something to make the change, so maybe this is the beginning of progress?

Maybe I’m hugely naive or poorly-informed about capitalism and consumerism, and I should be more radical, but I am going to carry on collecting for our local drop-off point and saving up my contact lenses.

I agree we have to focus on reducing consumption and analysing what we really do need in our lives; the faff of separating out the waste does make you more mindful of this, and about what could be reduced or reused before being recycled. For example bread bags – could I take these to the supermarket and use for loose veg? Could I use them instead of freezer bags? (which I use about 897 times before throwing away anyway). Does my husband REALLY need to eat a bag of crisps and a bar of chocolate every day with his packed lunch? Yes, yes he does. Unless I do more baking, of course. Which would correlate directly with more CBeebies (causing brain-rot, of course), and/or less naptime blogging – which would make you lot sad, and interfere with my plans to become the next Jack Monroe (she’s ace, by the way) and change the world, one rambling post at a time.

Join the Conversation

I had the same issues with Terracycle. It’s something I’ve actually been trying to push out to my workplace to support because I see it as a realistic win-win (recycling, money raised for charity, raising work’s profile etc etc).

My thoughts are that while there are small changes, the system isn’t going to change any time soon. And if the system doesn’t change then people will keep on purchasing in the same pattern, and that is indeed what the companies want. I do think there is work to be done by producers, manufacturers and distributors o food though; I believe they should be held accountable and fully support the waste strategy that was introduced in 2018 making producers pay costs of recycling products.

Until it hits companies where it hurts, being the pockets, then I can’t see anything changing. Therefore i see Terracycle as a good thing for now, but there are better ways to tackle this pollution in the first place. i’m hoping that’ll come in the future, hopefully before we haven’t got a choice!

Thanks, great thoughts! I totally agree re the waste strategy, the current system is clearly not fit for purpose. Watched a really interesting YouTube documentary about this a while back which I will write about soon, I didn’t know anything about the PRN system and how flawed it is!

Not really had the time to digest all of this blog but initially my thoughts are how far away from home are these recycling places. If you have to go in a car you are increasing carbon footprint and pollution etc. I see they give points but let us not be persuaded by this. Perhaps we should put pressure on the council and try and make them accountable for their actions together with collection points at supermarkets from which these products are bought. I know normally Tesco has a bank of bins for recycled goods perhaps they should expand the types of products. We go to the supermarkets anyway so no extra carbon footprint in theory. If points required for schools etc surely this would be quite low in value and labour intensive in some way. Just contribute a small sum each term to help the running of the school etc. I know we shouldn’t have to but thats life how it is. With regards to bags for veg I not use any at all I just weigh at the till and put into shopping bag. Cant be bothered cluttering up the cupboards with bags. Like I say I have not read this blog entirely so may be wrong. Repeating myself here but we pay our councils to do this recycling and if they are not doing it correctly they should be made to do so. People are quick to shout if small private clinics are opened up against the NHS to do their work if they have problems (privatisation) there is no difference just a different product. Will read when off holidays.

I totally agree about the carbon footprint issue – I hardly drive anywhere these days and our drop off point is literally around the corner but I know it’s not possible to live like this outside London. Re supermarkets and councils, watch this space, am doing a bit of research. Thanks again for engaging Anne, really appreciate it.